Santa Fe, NM – The Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) and the Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD) Contemporary Music Program are pleased to welcome – as part of the SFAI’s 2012 season of public programming, Half-Life – composer and sound artist, Steve Peters, to give a lecture and workshop and to offer two sound installation projects.

About Steve Peters:
Steve Peters (b. 1959) makes music and sound for a wide range of contexts and occasions using environmental recordings, found/ natural objects, electronics, various musical instruments, and human voices. Attentive to the subtle nuances of perception and place, his work is often site-specific, understated, and contemplative. He performs with the Seattle Phonographers Union, and works as a freelance producer, writer, and curator. Since 1989 he has been the Director of Nonsequitur, a non-profit organization presenting experimental music and sound art, currently via the Wayward Music Series at the Chapel Performance Space in Seattle. His music has been released on such labels as Cold Blue, Palace of Lights, Sirr, and Dragon’s Eye.

About the Lecture:
“Making a Place to Listen”
Steve will discuss his work in site-specific sound installations and contemplative listening, including works made in New Mexico, Chicago, Seattle, and Portugal. He will also talk about upcoming projects, including work I’ll be doing during his month-long SFAI residency in October.

About the Installations:
“The Very Rich Hours“
Commissioned in 2009 for the memorable multi-city Land/Art project, “The Very Rich Hours” was originally presented as an eight-channel sound installation in the Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales, NM. Drawing on my collection of environmental field recordings made during the fifteen years that I lived in New Mexico, the piece deals with the personal and emotional resonances of place and perception. Ten friends were asked to visit places in New Mexico that were meaningful to them, and to record their real time descriptions of what they experienced there. Their poetic reveries are woven with other voices singing the Latin names of New Mexico’s endangered species – a reminder of what is being lost.

“Chamber Music 2: Atrium”
Additionally, “Chamber Music 2: Atrium” will be heard continuously throughout the month of October in the entrance of the Benildus Hall at SFUAD. This four-channel sound installation was originally made for the Atrium Soundspace in 2007, and was derived entirely from an hour of “silence” recorded in the atrium when the building was closed.

About the Workshop:
“Listening, Finding, Giving, Receiving”
In this workshop Steve and his participants will turn their attention to the common sounds of places and things that surround us, and consider appropriate ways of responding and interacting. No musical instruments or electronic equipment will be used, and no previous musical experience is required.

Day 1 will be devoted to exploring various ways of actively listening to the sounds and silences of the world around us with openness, curiosity, and without value judgment: natural, human-made, indoors, outside, in motion, at rest, alone, together. Participants need bring only a journal and a pen, and dress according to the weather.

Day 2 will be devoted to exploring ways of making your own sounds with humble “non-musical” materials found in our daily lives, and finding various forms of performance that are suitable to making sound alone and as a group, in response to place and each other. Participants will need to bring ten items of any kind that can be used to make audible sound (not musical instruments).

About Half Life: Patterns of Change:
Cycles of Creation, Decay, and Renewal in Art and Life
When an object or system stops performing its assigned function in contemporary society, we tend to replace it rather than repair it. However, artists redefine useless as useful by creating a new life for objects, and that renewed life alters the role of these objects entirely. Artists work similar magic with degraded landscapes, blighted neighborhoods, and other systems—infusing them with new purpose and expanding the potential for positive change. Ideally, this change is accomplished with the participation of the surrounding communities—transforming not only objects and systems, but also the communities themselves.

About the Santa Fe Art Institute:
The Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) founded in 1985, is an independent non-profit community-based arts center with international reach that presents and promotes art as a positive social force. SFAI fosters the exploration of contemporary art by enlivening public discourse on art, nurturing artists at all phases of their careers, and encouraging learning via the arts for people of all ages through five key program areas: 1) Ongoing residencies that provide support necessary for visual and new media artists, writers and poetry translators, performance artists and composers to complete work and explore new creative directions; 2) An annual season of lectures and workshops that stimulates discourse around important issues in the arts; 3) Small, focused exhibitions that challenge audience assumptions; 4) Publications; and 5) Community-based arts education and outreach that support creativity and innovation, provide an alternative pathway for learning, and expand the traditional skillset available to people young and old. For more information, visit sfai.org.

About Santa Fe University of Art and Design:
Santa Fe University of Art and Design is an accredited institution located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of the world’s leading centers for art and design. The university offers degrees in arts management, contemporary music, creative writing, digital arts, graphic design, moving image arts (filmmaking and video production), performing arts, photography, and studio art. Faculty members are practicing artists who teach students in small groups, following a unique interdisciplinary curriculum that combines hands-on experience with core theory and prepares graduates to become well-rounded, creative, problem-solving professionals. As a Laureate International Universities Center of Excellence in Art, Architecture and Design, the university boasts an international student body and opportunities to study abroad, encouraging students to develop a global perspective on the arts. Santa Fe University of Art and Design is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association, www.ncahlc.org